Carnegie Science Center exhibit combats mental health stigma with empathy

At a glance, the Mental Health: Mind Matters exhibit looks different than others at the Carnegie Science Center.

A shredder at the exhibit’s center lets visitors write down their worries, then literally shred them with a hand crank. An emotion recognition game invites groups to act out emotions by pressing their faces into photo cutout board, then guess what others might be feeling. A self-image mirror asks the viewer to look at their reflection and turn a dial, stopping “when you think the mirror matches how you picture yourself,” then contrasts that self-image with reality.

With a goal of breaking stigmas and building understanding and empathy about mental health and wellbeing, the exhibit undertakes the difficult task of “bringing the science of mental health to life.” A series of multimedia and interactive displays aim to immerse museum-goers in others’ experiences living with mental health conditions and physically represent what are often considered internal states.

The traveling exhibition, opened March 1, comes to Pittsburgh from Finland. Initially created by Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, the award-winning exhibit, billed as the “first-ever science centre exhibition on mental health,” opened at the Science Museum of Minnesota after being adapted for a North American audience.

Through a partnership with Highmark, Mental Health: Mind Matters is available to all Center visitors as part of general admission through Sun., Aug. 17. Though an overview characterizes the exhibition as “designed to create a safe space for dialogue,” including for children, one section of the Center’s website notes that, “Some content in the exhibition may not be suitable for young visitors under age 11.”

The Center stresses that visitors can reference a family and educator’s guide, and crisis resources are also available on site. Mental Health: Mind Matters employs a pared-down, minimalist aesthetic that contrasts with The Science Behind Pixar exhibit that recently ran at the Center.

“The exhibit’s design creates a reflective, immersive space where visitors can fully engage with the content,” says Jason Brown, the Henry Buhl Jr. director of the Science Center.

Brown emphasizes the need to engage with how mental health “shapes our daily lives” is critical, citing findings by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) that one in five adults in the U.S. experiences mental illness each year. According to NAMI, in Pennsylvania, over 1.8 million adults — more than six times the population of Pittsburgh — are living with a mental health condition.

Two “This Is My Story” displays speak directly to this issue by featuring videos of people (and, in some cases, their family members) sharing experiences with mental illness, including bipolar disorder, depression, generalized anxiety, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

Mind Matters arrives in Pittsburgh amidst a political climate where the longstanding scientific bases of mental health treatment are being challenged. Two weeks before the exhibit’s opening, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Shortly after, Kennedy announced his intention to examine the risks of prescribing antidepressants to minors, over objections by doctors and mental health advocates. Kennedy has previously proposed “wellness farms,” which would isolate and institutionalize individuals with mental health conditions and revive what is largely considered by experts to be an inhumane treatment.

Though not speaking directly to current events, Brown underscores the exhibit’s importance, telling Pittsburgh City Paper, “As Pittsburgh’s most-visited museum, the Science Center has a responsibility to bring in exhibitions that spark important, science-based conversations and address critical societal issues.”

One Mental Health: Mind Matters display, “Looking Back,” walks visitors through historic mental health treatments dating back to the 1760s. Black-and-white illustrations depict people with mental illness confined to asylums in “miserable conditions” and recall harmful, sometimes deadly treatments, including bloodletting and lobotomies.

An exhibit panel notes that cultural shifts after World War II led to the development of more “effective” approaches, including “medications, therapies, housing and employment services, exercise, nutrition, and peer supports that make wellness and recovery possible for people living with mental illnesses today.”

As part of the exhibit, Carnegie Science Center also plans on co-hosting programs with community partners, including Casa San José, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (which created a reading list for the exhibit), Allegheny Health Network, and the Pittsburgh Pirates with the Chill Mobile, a traveling RV that offers mental health services to schools. Organizers recommend visitors check the Center’s website for programming details and dates once they are finalized.
Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, one of the nation’s oldest rape crisis centers that provides no-cost services to survivors, will hand out information at the exhibit throughout this month, beginning Sat., April 5. PAAR highlights April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“We provide all the resources necessary to help individuals along [their] journey to get to a good place with their mental health,” Cory Hart, PAAR’s development and marketing director, tells City Paper. “Sexual violence is not an easy thing to talk about … normalizing the conversation is so important. I think it’s imperative for people to acknowledge what is happening, especially [with] mental health, and the trauma that people experience affects so many different parts of not only their lives, but the lives of people around them.”
Harts says a strength of the exhibit is to “really recognize, acknowledge, and let people know, you’re not alone.”

“It has an impact,” he says.

This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2025.